Howard Lee’s election as mayor of Chapel Hill, 1969

In the chronology

Dated events connected with this event, earliest first. See these 7 dated events in the chronology →

1. April 23, 1969 Howard Lee and Roland Giduz meet in an open forum at the Newman Center About 100 people heard the two mayoral candidates differ on the Mitchell Lane open storm drain, a local option sales tax, the Inter-Church Council low-income housing project and developers' seats on the Planning Board. Lee called the drain the town's responsibility; Giduz, twelve years an alderman, was asked why it had not been covered. People: Howard N. Lee, Roland GiduzDigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, April 25, 1969, page 1 (OCR text)
2. April 30, 1969 Mayoral and aldermanic candidates answer questions at the Institute of Government Lee, Giduz and all seven candidates for the Board of Aldermen took questions at an open forum. Sharp exchanges came over a police review board, which Lee said he had never favored, and over whether the town should pay to cover the Mitchell Lane drain, on which Giduz cited county health tests and Steve Bernholz answered that 'the ditch stinks'. People: Howard N. Lee, Roland GiduzDigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, May 2, 1969, page 1 (OCR text)
3. May 6, 1969 Howard Lee is elected mayor of Chapel Hill Howard N. Lee defeated Roland Giduz by about 400 votes on May 6, 1969, in the largest turnout for a Chapel Hill election to that date, becoming the town's first Black mayor. He was the first African American elected mayor of a predominantly white Southern town since Reconstruction. People: Howard N. LeeDaily Tar Heel, May 7, 1969, p. 1: Howard Lee Elected Chapel Hill Mayor
4. May 6, 1969 Rebecca Clark carries voters to the polls in Howard Lee's mayoral campaign Clark worked on Howard Lee's campaign for mayor, sending her son's Greyhound bus street to street to take voters to the polls, and helped count ballots by hand on election night. Lee won the May 6, 1969 election. People: Howard N. LeeSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Howard Lee: A Historical Mayoral Election
5. May 12, 1969 Howard Lee takes the oath as mayor of Chapel Hill at Town Hall More than 140 people packed the second-floor room of Town Hall for the 7:30 p.m. meeting at which town clerk Roberts swore in Lee after outgoing mayor Sandy McClamroch reviewed his ten years in office. New aldermen Joe Nassif, Mary Prothro, George Coxhead and Ross Scroggs were sworn in, and Lee's first board elected David Ethridge mayor pro tem. People: Howard N. Lee, Sandy McClamrochDigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, May 14, 1969, page 1 (OCR text)
6. May 4, 1971 Howard Lee is re-elected mayor over Jack Maultsby Lee won a second term against three challengers, leading restaurant co-owner Jack Maultsby 1,999 to 1,352 with two-thirds of the vote counted on election night; NCpedia gives his final share as 64 percent. The same ballot narrowly approved a Chapel Hill-Carrboro bus system in Chapel Hill, which Carrboro voters rejected. People: Howard N. LeeDigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, May 5, 1971, page 1 (OCR text)
7. November 6, 1973 Howard Lee wins a third term as mayor by a landslide In Chapel Hill's first November municipal election Lee carried every reporting precinct, taking 5,001 votes to 1,109 for graduate student Douglas Holmes, whom he had also beaten in 1971. NCpedia puts his share at 89 percent. People: Howard N. LeeDigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, November 7, 1973, page 1 (OCR text)